Carlos Ghosn: the rise and fall of a superstar CEO | FT Film — Transcript

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1. 0:04I would be ready to stand trial anywhere
2. 0:06where I think I can have a fair trial.
3. 0:09Carlos Ghosn was a leader almost like no
4. 0:12other in the auto industry.
5. 0:15He was a superstar.
6. 0:17He could get access to Putin.
7. 0:21This is a guy that is a definition of
8. 0:24ambition.
9. 0:24Very charismatic, globetrotting CEO.
10. 0:27Then when he was arrested, everything
11. 0:29changed.
12. 0:30Everyone's interested in the Carlos
13. 0:31Ghosn story.
14. 0:32The story of power, it's almost a story
15. 0:34of megalomania.
16. 0:35He had really lost his mind.
17. 0:37It's got high-stakes escape, money, and
18. 0:39betrayal.
19. 0:48Carlos Ghosn has very much a melting pot
20. 0:51heritage.
21. 0:52His grandparents are Lebanese. They
22. 0:54moved to Brazil.
23. 0:55He was born in Brazil. He moved to
24. 0:58Lebanon uh when he was very young. He
25. 1:00was then educated in Lebanon.
26. 1:01Carlos left Lebanon to study engineering
27. 1:04in France.
28. 1:05In Paris at one of the grand écoles.
29. 1:08He's part of a class of other similarly
30. 1:09mathematically gifted guys. I mean,
31. 1:11people he ended up working with like
32. 1:12Patrick Pelata.
33. 1:14He had the reputation to uh party a lot.
34. 1:17He joined Michelin straight out of
35. 1:19university.
36. 1:20And he made a name for himself there as
37. 1:21a turnaround specialist.
38. 1:23He then got a job down in South America
39. 1:26for Renault where he also turned around
40. 1:28their operations.
41. 1:29He didn't see himself as tied to any one
42. 1:32nation, even to any one regional
43. 1:34continent. He was very much a man of the
44. 1:36globe.
45. 1:38He never fit in the French
46. 1:39establishment. That was bothering him.
47. 1:42Elite Paris is a very small club.
48. 1:44I don't know if they were rejecting him
49. 1:46or he didn't want to join.
50. 1:47He would call himself a citizen of the
51. 1:49world. Perhaps he struggled finding
52. 1:52himself when he was at Polytechnique.
53. 1:54He definitely was outside of the real
54. 1:56Parisian core elite. And I've talked to
55. 1:58a lot of people around him who know him,
56. 1:59who say that that did drive him.
57. 2:03He gets parachuted into Nissan after
58. 2:05Renault rescued a really struggling
59. 2:08Nissan.
60. 2:08Carlos Ghosn arrived at Nissan as chief
61. 2:11operating officer in 1999, and 2 years
62. 2:14later he became the chief executive
63. 2:16officer. People didn't know who he was,
64. 2:18people were watching him with skepticism
65. 2:20as a foreigner.
66. 2:21This mystery man initially, he creates
67. 2:24this turnaround.
68. 2:26very fast in compiling a recovery plan
69. 2:29for Nissan, which is now famously called
70. 2:31the Nissan Revival Plan.
71. 2:32That was what was the making of Carlos
72. 2:34Ghosn as a businessman.
73. 2:38Ghosn, when he'd come into a corporate
74. 2:39situation and needed to turn it round,
75. 2:41was ferocious.
76. 2:43Cutting 21,000 jobs.
77. 2:46And this led to his name Le Cost Killer.
78. 2:48He broke down the traditional network of
79. 2:51close suppliers that are tied through
80. 2:53cross shareholdings.
81. 2:57He was not afraid to try to understand
82. 2:58what the people were doing, pushing for
83. 3:01potential improvements. At that time he
84. 3:03had a lot of empathy.
85. 3:06Nobody really expected the outsider to
86. 3:09succeed.
87. 3:09It's probably one of the most successful
88. 3:11corporate turnarounds in history.
89. 3:13That's when the superstardom really
90. 3:14begins.
91. 3:18Ghosn within 12 months
92. 3:20was clearly knocking it out of the park.
93. 3:23He can see the opportunity, and he
94. 3:25grabbed it.
95. 3:25Yeah, his face was on children's lunch
96. 3:27boxes. He had his own comics.
97. 3:30It's really rare for a foreign CEO to be
98. 3:33in a Japanese manga. It really brought
99. 3:35him close to the Japanese people.
100. 3:36He was on TV regularly, and the
101. 3:38newspapers and magazines fell in love
102. 3:40with him.
103. 3:42He said, "We don't deliver this Nissan
104. 3:43recovery plan. I and my board will
105. 3:46resign." This was a big statement in
106. 3:48Japan, and that made this manga hero.
107. 3:51It's difficult to overstate where Nissan
108. 3:53sits in the Japanese perception. It's
109. 3:55one of its great companies. And then you
110. 3:57have Carlos Ghosn coming into that story
111. 4:00as the savior. And Japan desperately
112. 4:02wanted to get behind that story. Very
113. 4:04ambitious guys are often very good for
114. 4:06companies that that need pretty powerful
115. 4:09medicine. There was a big shortage of
116. 4:11Japanese corporate leaders who were
117. 4:13willing to be quite as direct about what
118. 4:16needed to be done.
119. 4:17People liked him. You could send a
120. 4:19letter in Lebanon with Carlos Ghosn's
121. 4:21face on it.
122. 4:21Carlos Ghosn could do no wrong.
123. 4:24He's extraordinarily
124. 4:26motivating to work for. I wouldn't call
125. 4:29him particularly friendly. He would
126. 4:31address me as Andy 14 years that I knew
127. 4:33him. I still addressed him as Mr. Ghosn.
128. 4:362005 he took on the job as chief exec of
129. 4:39Renault as well.
130. 4:40He traveled more often, this
131. 4:42globetrotting CEO.
132. 4:43Living and working in both France and
133. 4:45Japan at the same time.
134. 4:47A week a month in Japan, a week a month
135. 4:49in Renault.
136. 4:50Less time on the ground, more time in
137. 4:51the air. He was doing a lot of public
138. 4:53relations communications talking. He was
139. 4:55a figurehead.
140. 4:56And as a result his management style had
141. 4:58to change.
142. 4:59Originally at Nissan it was more like an
143. 5:00operational role where he was really
144. 5:01fixing the problems at Nissan, but he
145. 5:03became more of a head of the lions.
146. 5:05The suits got better, more expensive,
147. 5:07the hair cut got better.
148. 5:08His geeky glasses were replaced.
149. 5:12You could definitely see at this point
150. 5:13Carlos Ghosn beginning to think the
151. 5:15world was his and that he should be paid
152. 5:17accordingly to that.
153. 5:18He was partly a creator of this image of
154. 5:21the global CEO. Private jets and the the
155. 5:23suits and so on.
156. 5:24This idea of Davos man. It's crude but
157. 5:27there's truth to it. He stopped being
158. 5:29the kind of guy who is on all the
159. 5:30details.
160. 5:31A presentation by managers of Renault to
161. 5:34Carlos Ghosn is like the big event of
162. 5:36their career, at least of the year. But
163. 5:39little by little I was seeing him on his
164. 5:41smartphone. Not for 10 seconds, which
165. 5:44can happen, but for 1 2 minutes 3
166. 5:46minutes out of the meetings. I was
167. 5:48ashamed of that.
168. 5:49You're dealing with a monster of a
169. 5:50company across two different cultures,
170. 5:52huge distances apart. Can somebody
171. 5:54really manage that? Real-life experiment
172. 5:56of Carlos Ghosn suggests not.
173. 5:58I told him, your way of management does
174. 6:00not work anymore.
175. 6:02He had to manage the French state, he
176. 6:04had to manage Renault, he had to manage
177. 6:06a Japanese culture.
178. 6:07He became stretched. He lose lose touch
179. 6:09with reality. He was seen as being more
180. 6:11remote, not having the time necessary to
181. 6:13take care of Nissan.
182. 6:15After Nissan's revival, Nissan became a
183. 6:18much more powerful company.
184. 6:20Is this really an equal alliance when
185. 6:22one has a voting stake and the other has
186. 6:24a non-voting stake? There was a whole
187. 6:25question about the skewed capital
188. 6:27relationship, Renault holding a 43%
189. 6:30stake in Nissan, while Nissan only held
190. 6:33a 15% stake.
191. 6:34was dysfunctional from the day it was
192. 6:36created.
193. 6:39In 2016, Nissan takes a large stake in
194. 6:42Mitsubishi.
195. 6:43It was really a Carlos Ghosn moment when
196. 6:45he struck this alliance and brought in
197. 6:47Mitsubishi.
198. 6:48Carlos Ghosn moves over to become the
199. 6:49company's chairman.
200. 6:51One of the benchmarks for the automotive
201. 6:52industry was 10 million vehicles per
202. 6:55year that Toyota or Volkswagen sold.
203. 6:58This was a long-time obsession of Carlos
204. 7:00Ghosn's.
205. 7:01Adding Mitsubishi was a key part of his
206. 7:04vision.
207. 7:04Carlos Ghosn was obsessed with scale.
208. 7:08He wants it to be huge, not just on a
209. 7:11level with Toyota and Volkswagen, but
210. 7:13untouchable as the biggest car maker in
211. 7:15the world.
212. 7:17He wanted to merge with Fiat Chrysler.
213. 7:20This would take them from 10 million a
214. 7:21year up to a 14 or even 15 million a
215. 7:24year. They would be the industry
216. 7:26behemoth.
217. 7:27There was a certain amount of ego,
218. 7:30wanting to be the biggest car company in
219. 7:32the world.
220. 7:33Ghosn was obsessed with being the
221. 7:34biggest and the best. That became an
222. 7:37issue.
223. 7:37Some people said those pressures have
224. 7:39actually led to some of the financial
225. 7:40struggles that the companies are facing
226. 7:42now.
227. 7:43Volume is not a goal. Volume is a result
228. 7:47of good management with bad deals just
229. 7:51to add volumes. So, this is not the
230. 7:53goal. I had known.
231. 7:54Fiat
232. 7:56may well have worked as a deal, but
233. 7:57there were still big questions about
234. 7:59integration, particularly when Renault
235. 8:01and Nissan themselves are so far apart
236. 8:04on so many issues. But, it was right
237. 8:06after that that it all came crumbling
238. 8:08down.
239. 8:11There have been a handful of foreign
240. 8:13CEOs of Japanese companies and they earn
241. 8:16less than their counterparts in the same
242. 8:18industry elsewhere in the world.
243. 8:20Carlos Ghosn always felt irked that he
244. 8:22had ended up working in two countries
245. 8:24where high pay was a toxic subject.
246. 8:26He always used to say that compare it
247. 8:28with the pay package that rival CEOs
248. 8:31get, then it wasn't like he was getting
249. 8:32overpaid.
250. 8:33And there was always a fear that if he
251. 8:35didn't get paid enough, he'd just leave.
252. 8:37And that led to efforts to try and find
253. 8:40other ways of compensating him that
254. 8:42actually are at the heart of the
255. 8:44allegations he faces now.
256. 8:46For successful leaders, sometimes the
257. 8:48lines do blur between what's personal
258. 8:52and what's business.
259. 8:53He's in charge of this alliance, but
260. 8:54which wallet is this coming out of?
261. 8:56Which wallet's this coming out of?
262. 8:59It was a cloudy afternoon in November
263. 9:022018 when Carlos Ghosn's private jet had
264. 9:04just landed in Tokyo. And this was the
265. 9:08moment for him that it all fell apart.
266. 9:11I remember checking on my mobile and
267. 9:13having a news alert saying Ghosn was
268. 9:14arrested. I thought it might be wrong.
269. 9:17How could this happen?
270. 9:18Agents boarded the plane and Ghosn in
271. 9:21the airport was arrested.
272. 9:22It's a pretty dramatic way of going on
273. 9:24the offensive to to replace your CEO.
274. 9:26Normally, you get a brown envelope.
275. 9:28The real question with Carlos Ghosn is
276. 9:29how big would that brown envelope have
277. 9:30had to be?
278. 9:31There was a feeling at the time that
279. 9:32this was some kind of inside job, that
280. 9:34Nissan wanted him out and this was one
281. 9:36of the reasons that you know, the
282. 9:38national company like this would
283. 9:40suddenly decide to pursue him for things
284. 9:43that they said he'd been doing for
285. 9:45years. Why did this happen now? Had
286. 9:48Ghosn been betrayed by somebody inside
287. 9:51his own camp?
288. 9:52It was completely sudden.
289. 9:54And completely free of build-up or
290. 9:57anything.
291. 9:57If he had any inkling this was coming,
292. 9:59he would not have got on that plane.
293. 10:01Is it a plot or is it that there was a
294. 10:03fundamental problem with what was
295. 10:04happening at Nissan and and somebody
296. 10:06blew a whistle on it?
297. 10:07Yeah, cuz the truth is
298. 10:09about the money and the truth is not
299. 10:10about intentions that you were you think
300. 10:13people had. He betrayed Nissan, yes.
301. 10:16He betrayed the people of Renault and
302. 10:17Nissan by not by not doing his job. This
303. 10:20is the worst of the worst.
304. 10:23There were multiple instances of him
305. 10:24using the Nissan corporate jet which had
306. 10:27Nissan as the tail number for personal
307. 10:30and family trips.
308. 10:32He saw it as his right as the top of
309. 10:35these companies, particularly if they
310. 10:36couldn't pay him enough money, that he
311. 10:38would be able to live off the
312. 10:39businesses.
313. 10:41A house provided in Lebanon, a house
314. 10:43provided in Brazil, even though neither
315. 10:46of them were major pillars for either
316. 10:48companies. There were alleged payments
317. 10:50to a dealership in Oman.
318. 10:53Some of the money that went here was
319. 10:55alleged to have been used to have bought
320. 10:57private yacht.
321. 10:59He's been alleged to have diverted about
322. 11:015 million of Nissan's money to companies
323. 11:03that are related to his family.
324. 11:06It was the case of a lavish birthday
325. 11:07party which was hosted at the Palace of
326. 11:09Versailles with a Marie Antoinette
327. 11:11theme.
328. 11:12When he's saying that this was not for
329. 11:13his birthday but for the the alliance 30
330. 11:16years anniversary, this is a pure pure
331. 11:18lie. And this is a shame to say that.
332. 11:21Nobody from Nissan and Renault, past or
333. 11:25present,
334. 11:26went.
335. 11:30You have to be a little tone deaf to try
336. 11:32and pull off a Marie Antoinette-themed
337. 11:35party at Versailles. I don't think
338. 11:37anyone's watched that video now and
339. 11:38hasn't like winced.
340. 11:39He had really completely lost his mind.
341. 11:42Lost his mind. Something was broken.
342. 11:44Something was broken.
343. 11:47The US Securities and Exchange
344. 11:49Commission brought a fraud case against
345. 11:51Ghosn.
346. 11:52It alleged that he had hidden 140
347. 11:54million dollars
348. 11:56of pay at Nissan.
349. 11:59Ghosn settled the fraud case. He paid 1
350. 12:01million dollars.
351. 12:03Nissan launched a governance probe. This
352. 12:05found what it described as a personality
353. 12:07cult of Ghosn where he could basically
354. 12:09do what he wanted.
355. 12:11I mean, a lot of people were feeling his
356. 12:12rule at these companies was a
357. 12:14dictatorship. He was consolidating
358. 12:17power. He was feared. Some employees
359. 12:20described him as autocratic.
360. 12:22Was he living on a reputation that
361. 12:24latterly he no longer deserved as a
362. 12:27manager?
363. 12:27He was planning to fully merge Nissan
364. 12:30and Renault. And so, that exposed the
365. 12:33various tensions that have been building
366. 12:35up to that 2018 arrest.
367. 12:38It is entirely possible that Carlos
368. 12:40Ghosn over the years did find ways
369. 12:43to squirrel away money that he thought
370. 12:45he was owed. And at the same time, he
371. 12:47also wanted to solidify the alliance and
372. 12:49hand more power to the French, which was
373. 12:51the thing that those inside Nissan were
374. 12:54terrified of.
375. 12:56He was locked up for 108 days. He was
376. 12:58questioned without a lawyer present. And
377. 13:00then, he was released on bail. So, it
378. 13:03was going back and forth between bail
379. 13:04and re-arrest.
380. 13:06Carlos Ghosn was under house arrest. He
381. 13:08was under 24-hour surveillance. Every
382. 13:10time he left the house, he was followed
383. 13:12not by one, not by two, but by three
384. 13:14different sets of tails.
385. 13:15At the end of 2019,
386. 13:18news goes out that Ghosn has escaped.
387. 13:20I love the escape. I think it's the best
388. 13:21bit of the story. I mean, the whole
389. 13:23thing is absurd from start to finish.
390. 13:24An email landed from our correspondent
391. 13:27in Beirut who said, "Carlos Ghosn has
392. 13:29just arrived." And I had to do a double
393. 13:31take.
394. 13:31How was Carlos Ghosn in Lebanon? Like,
395. 13:32this doesn't make any sense.
396. 13:33Especially because of this 24-hour
397. 13:35surveillance. We didn't know
398. 13:37he was planning an escape.
399. 13:39That he was trying to come back to
400. 13:41Lebanon.
401. 13:44He managed to evade detection by the
402. 13:46guards who were supposed to be watching
403. 13:48his house.
404. 13:49He met his fellow conspirators at a
405. 13:52hotel in Tokyo.
406. 13:53Carlos even rode a bullet train at one
407. 13:55point.
408. 13:55Wearing a mask, even though this was
409. 13:57before the pandemic. He was still in the
410. 13:59country where lots of people wore masks
411. 14:00for public health anyway.
412. 14:02He was smuggled out of the hotel in a
413. 14:04box for audio equipment.
414. 14:06He's able to go inside it. There are air
415. 14:07holes drilled in it. In a private jet,
416. 14:10you can get access to the hold quite
417. 14:12easily. When the doors are closed, and
418. 14:14as the champagne is being served, Carlos
419. 14:17Ghosn comes out of his box and comes
420. 14:19into his private jet, a free man.
421. 14:22I didn't really believe it. You could
422. 14:24only be taken back by just how audacious
423. 14:28that escape had been.
424. 14:29Unbelievable how
425. 14:31he managed to do it.
426. 14:33You know, without the Japanese police or
427. 14:34any of the prosecutors actually finding
428. 14:36out.
429. 14:38The escape flight was from Japan to
430. 14:41Turkey. On the grounds that if he flew
431. 14:43directly from Japan to Lebanon, it would
432. 14:45have raised too many suspicions.
433. 14:47He flies the relatively short journey
434. 14:50from Istanbul to Beirut, disembarks in
435. 14:53Lebanon.
436. 14:54Starts his new life as a man on the run.
437. 14:59Lebanon doesn't have an extradition
438. 15:01treaty with Japan. So, this was one of
439. 15:03the reasons why it was a destination of
440. 15:06choice for him.
441. 15:06So long as he stays in Lebanon for now,
442. 15:09he's safe.
443. 15:09My favorite bit about the escape is just
444. 15:11simply imagining Carlos Ghosn before all
445. 15:14of this, imagining his future where he
446. 15:16has to climb into a box with air holes
447. 15:18to try and escape through an airport.
448. 15:19It's just fantastically absurd.
449. 15:21Yet another part of a story that that
450. 15:23was never going to end with any kind of
451. 15:26normal or predictable outcome.
452. 15:28Sitting here today, I almost think it
453. 15:29had to end that way. You had to have a
454. 15:30green beret mercenary scoping out
455. 15:33airports to help him escape.
456. 15:35Mike Taylor, he's a guy with a long
457. 15:37history with Lebanon, deep deep ties in
458. 15:39the country and in the region.
459. 15:41You had to have fees paid in Bitcoin and
460. 15:43you had to have WhatsApp chats and
461. 15:45accounts set up by his sister or
462. 15:47something. It's just fantastic. It had
463. 15:48to end that way.
464. 15:49It shows actually a level of
465. 15:51desperation. Carlos Ghosn was convinced
466. 15:53and has always said
467. 15:55he didn't believe he would get a fair
468. 15:56trial in Japan.
469. 15:57Carlos' opinion was he had been stitched
470. 16:00up, that he was going to be convicted no
471. 16:02matter what.
472. 16:03that Japan's justice system was fair and
473. 16:05so he would never receive a fair trial
474. 16:07in Japan.
475. 16:08If you believe Ghosn, his downfall was a
476. 16:10result of a plot by people within Nissan
477. 16:13who wanted him out in part because of
478. 16:15his plans to bring the alliance closer
479. 16:17together.
480. 16:17And he said, "I wasn't escaping
481. 16:20justice." Which of course is is exactly
482. 16:22how it's cast in the Japanese media. He
483. 16:24says, "You know, I was escaping
484. 16:25injustice."
485. 16:26I'm going to fight because I have to
486. 16:28clear my name and this is something
487. 16:30which is extremely important to me.
488. 16:33The press conference in January last
489. 16:35year was
490. 16:36a sensational exhibition.
491. 16:38He gives this press conference in four
492. 16:41languages.
493. 16:45English, Arabic, French, and Portuguese.
494. 16:47He stood at the front of this hall and
495. 16:50had projected on the screen behind him
496. 16:52large print documents with highlighted
497. 16:56bits and circled bits that he claimed
498. 16:58prove his innocence.
499. 16:59No one could really tell what they were
500. 17:00about. I mean, he was going through them
501. 17:02all so fast.
502. 17:04It was almost impossible to know what
503. 17:05was going on. All of these slides that
504. 17:07were flashing before our eyes.
505. 17:09He said those documents would then be
506. 17:10available to the media afterwards. By
507. 17:12and large, they have not been.
508. 17:14Who was part of the plot?
509. 17:16He intimated that Japanese politicians
510. 17:18and at the highest level there had been
511. 17:20a conspiracy against him. And I remember
512. 17:23sharing notes with with a very
513. 17:25experienced foreign correspondent
514. 17:26afterwards and he couldn't remember
515. 17:27seeing a press conference this strange
516. 17:29since he was in North Korea.
517. 17:32After Carlos arrived in Lebanon, he had
518. 17:35his year from hell. The economic crisis
519. 17:37started to hit. All the money was stuck
520. 17:38in the banks. The economy shrank by a
521. 17:40fifth.
522. 17:41I'm sure that being confined to a
523. 17:43relatively small country like Lebanon is
524. 17:45going to feel like prison.
525. 17:46For this man to end up in a country that
526. 17:48is on its knees is quite an
527. 17:51extraordinary turn of events.
528. 17:54This is a man who had the world at his
529. 17:56fingertips, who go anywhere he wanted at
530. 17:59the drop of a hat.
531. 18:00I think he's trapped now. I think he's
532. 18:02trapped.
533. 18:03Everyone would have been watching to see
534. 18:05whether that trial would have been done
535. 18:06in a fair manner. That was really his
536. 18:08opportunity to make his case. That
537. 18:11opportunity has been forever lost.
538. 18:13He's definitely been busy.
539. 18:16He popped up on Instagram holding a
540. 18:19puppy aloft doing a promotional post for
541. 18:21this dog breeding company. He's also
542. 18:23been working on a book. He launched a
543. 18:26university business management course.
544. 18:29It was going to cost anywhere from 15 to
545. 18:3120,000 dollars for students to sit on
546. 18:34this course. No one can get their money
547. 18:35out of the banks. It begs the question
548. 18:36like who actually sat this course?
549. 18:39If you were to make a list of the auto
550. 18:41execs who had shaped the modern
551. 18:43automotive world, Carlos Ghosn would be
552. 18:45either at the top or very close to the
553. 18:47top.
554. 18:48Mr. Ghosn, you see I still call him Mr.
555. 18:50Ghosn. He had a gift for inspiring
556. 18:53people.
557. 18:54Carlos Ghosn worked as that glue that
558. 18:56tied together two different companies.
559. 18:59It's obviously sad to see a man that can
560. 19:01go to greatness to something that bad,
561. 19:04but the saddest of all is the two
562. 19:06companies are still suffering from it.
563. 19:08The performance of the group, both
564. 19:10Renault and Nissan, post the departure
565. 19:13of Ghosn is pretty tragic.
566. 19:15To elect yes-men or yes-women around him
567. 19:20so shocking.
568. 19:22So shocking.
569. 19:22That's a proof in one way that Ghosn was
570. 19:25a linchpin in making it work, but he
571. 19:28wasn't able to set that legacy in stone.
572. 19:31Does that alliance have a long and
573. 19:36prosperous life
574. 19:37without Carlos Ghosn?
575. 19:39Can it hold together? It's a tough call.
576. 19:41Both Nissan and Renault say in the
577. 19:42future they will be smaller, but they
578. 19:44will be more profitable than they are
579. 19:46today. Carlos Ghosn's view of global
580. 19:48scale being dominant is not something
581. 19:51that survived his downfall.
582. 19:54Carlos Ghosn's story is a real lightning
583. 19:57rod for fears about CEO king.
584. 20:01He was there for so long that he saw
585. 20:02this alliance as his, and there wasn't
586. 20:05enough people around him to say no.
587. 20:07A CEO who was running three companies
588. 20:09should have immediately raised red
589. 20:11flags.
590. 20:12You can't be the CEO of two companies at
591. 20:15once.
592. 20:16The board has to be there to challenge
593. 20:18the CEO. The board of Nissan was not a
594. 20:21real board.
595. 20:22We've seen this time and again when
596. 20:24people become bigger than their
597. 20:25companies, they end up doing things that
598. 20:27ultimately lead to their downfall.
599. 20:30There's going to be a redefinition of
600. 20:32what the global CEO means. That's going
601. 20:35to be an era that's going to be defined
602. 20:36by somebody that isn't Carlos Ghosn.
603. 20:38The parties in Versailles are the things
604. 20:40that are going to be remembered, right?
605. 20:41Because it's such an excruciating symbol
606. 20:46of someone acting like a king.
607. 20:48Carlos Ghosn now is still an important
608. 20:50figure in the world, and I think he
609. 20:51likes that. Eventually that will end,
610. 20:53and he'll be in Lebanon.
611. 20:55And I don't know how he'll handle that.
612. 20:56People will start losing interest.
613. 20:58His legacy is damaged forever hanging
614. 21:01over your head that you're a man on the
615. 21:03run.
616. 21:03It's going to be tough.
617. 21:04That would really be a sad ending for
618. 21:06someone who was a powerful figure in the
619. 21:09automotive industry.
620. 21:11He's kind of won.
621. 21:13He's not behind bars. He's stuck in
622. 21:14Lebanon. He's lost his crown, but
623. 21:16there's still a kingdom for him here.
624. 21:18That sort of image of a private jet
625. 21:21disappearing with a box with a former
626. 21:23CEO inside it, that's the credits
627. 21:25rolling.